Comic Book Movie Winners and Losers of Summer 2011

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is not a movie many will associate with comic books, but back in the 1970s, with the five original movies still going strong in cinemas, Marvel Comics was printing Planet of the Apes magazine through its Curtis Magazines imprint. Even today, Boom! Studios is releasing a Planet of the Apes comic book, but the storyline stays within the continuity of the original five Apes movies.

Without a specific comic book to base the movie on, screenwriters and co-producers Amanda Silver and Rick Jaffa were left to craft their own story, one that would serve as a prequel to the 1968 original. After the debacle that was the Tim Burton-directed 2001 remake, we feared there might not be much interest in another trip to the franchise, especially one set in modern times.

But our fears were unfounded. Rise of the Planet of the Apes was the third comic book movie to stay at the top of the box office for multiple weekends, with a current worldwide box office total of $259 million. (Transformers: Dark of the Moon and Thor being the other two.)

Director Rupert Wyatt is already thinking sequels, recently revealing that "there's so much we could do" with a sequel, as the Apes eventually evolve into the talking and conversing ones seen in the original movie. Having created a potential franchise where Burton failed, we have to declare Rise of the Planet of the Apes a winner.